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Marvel Pick Of The Week – June 29, 2016

By Matt Conner

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Pick Of The Week reminds us all that Captain America is a comic book built on shock cliffhangers, so we can all take deep breaths and enjoy a great plot twist. Steve Rogers is not a Nazi, no matter what USA Today tells you.

Spoilers ahead!

Pick Of The Week: Captain America: Steve Rogers #2, by Nick Spencer and Jesus Saiz

I am grateful that I managed to miss the spoilers before I read Captain America: Steve Rogers #1. In that story, Cap was rescuing Dr. Selvig from Baron Zemo but had a change of heart, threw kid sidekick Jack Flagg out of plane, and said, “Hail Hydra.” Major news outlets like USA Today leaked this the morning of publication, and the Internet caught fire. As is typical with these kinds of stories, people who don’t read comics anymore yelled about ruining their childhoods, but several comics sites had some very thoughtful pieces about the ethics of making Captain America a secret member of an analogue to the Nazi party, even for a brief story beat, and those arguments hold.

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But no, Captain America is not a Nazi, and that’s just what cliffhangers are for, to get us talking and thinking and coming back for the next page. My money was on Secret Infiltration Of Hydra, but I read good arguments for Came Back From Secret Wars Wrong or Brainwashing or Life Model Decoy. The answer was more interesting than any of the above, well in line with the long game Nick Spencer has played through Captain America: Sam Wilson and Avengers Standoff. Seriously, spoilers ahead.

It all goes back to Kobik, the sentient Cosmic Cube. Turns out her original Cube form was the one the Red Skull used back in that classic Captain America story, so when she gained consciousness (hilariously suggested by Maria Hill as “Apparently someone fed them after midnight”) she sought out the Skull as the last human she’d known. And he began a long programming strategy such that this little girl with the power of God learned to truly believe that Hydra were the good guys, and the world would just be better when Red Skull could lead Hydra to take it all over. So in Standoff, when she made Steve Rogers better, we saw her rejuvenate his broken, aged body, but she also converted him to what she had learned. She’s a Cosmic Cube, so this is reality, but it’s not like it can’t be undone.

The Skull’s machinations have been fascinating to watch. He has a sense of dark humor we’ve seen with a lot of Nick Spencer’s villains, like when he kills the kitchen staff and explains, “You try this soup and tell me it’s not bland. I warned them, celery is a poor base!” But he never loses his edge. Nick Spencer is not writing a wacky Nazi, he’s writing a terrifying villain worthy of the monstrous associations, and it’s the best Captain America has been since the Brubaker run. Similarly, that run made Steve Epting into the modern iconic artist for Captain America, and Jesus Saiz is giving that a run for his money. These pages are lush, rich, and realistic, showing plot-relevant violence without gore or apology.

I understand if readers aren’t coming back because of the thoughtful rejection of even the involuntary association between the title character and the Nazi party. But I, for one, think this plot twist is part of the nature of serialization and plays beautifully to the horror and complexity of Nick Spencer’s scripts for the past few months.

Honorable Mentions:

Mockingbird #4, for almost getting Pick Of The Week because of the density of jokes and action (complete with feminist jokes and a subtle cameo by a famous classic surgery painting) and also because I want Hawkeye’s bathing suit. The back has a paper doll with other versions of the suit, and it’s adorable and I want each of them.

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #9, because Squirrel Girl can most definitely kick butts when she is not eating nuts, but she can also defuse tense situations by being a human being and listening to the bad guy and understanding him. She’s perfect.

Star-Lord #8, because it would be worth getting hit in the head if it meant I could see those cute little Star-Lords and Kitty Prydes swirling around my head. (Bam Smack Pow does not endorse getting smacked in the head, not even for cute cartoon superheroes.)

Hyperion #4, because the answer to “Why don’t you love us?” might be “Because you are a horrifying monster made of worms with a drooling mouth in your belly” but is more likely “Because you have dressed me as a clown and there is nothing scarier than a clown, not even a person made of worms.”

Extraordinary X-Men #11, because the X-Men books have been pretty dull since Secret Wars ended but Moon Knight’s creepy battle with Nightcrawler is starting to win me back.

Spider-Gwen Annual #1, because not only is Spider-Gwen’s version of Nazi vampire Baron Blood the late Prince…

… but her version of M.O.D.O.K. is Donald Trump. And I’m not going to make the easy political jokes. But I don’t mind if you make a few in the comments.

Catch up on previous Marvel Picks of the Week here!

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